Chapter Thirteen

"Good luck, Ms. Tategami."

"Give it your all."

Eri watched with undiminished fascination as clouds seemed to swirl around Tategami and fade away to reveal her leonine form. The huge, muscular, felid form only reminiscent of an actual lion, heavily muscled and covered in golden-tawny fur. Its eyes sharp and golden, mouth wide and full of long fangs, the face and shoulders wreathed in a curling mane.

The transformation took only a handful of seconds, but it was also enough for her opponent to do the same. A burst of steam seemed to erupt from every inch of Mori's skin in his own moe wispy cloud, only to clear away with the trumpeting call of his own animalistic form.

"I knew it," Eri heard Kota growl. "He's the elephant."

And so he was. Mori had transformed into the grey-skinned, massive form similar to an Asiatic elephant. He rumbled and shook his frame, readying for the coming fight.

Oki Mori.

Quirk: Elephantine. He can transform into a powerful Asian elephant, complete with the animal's strength, surprising speed, and resilience. This Quirk also heightens his intelligence in and out of elephant form, particularly his memory.

Mori trumpeted again and charged toward Tategami, who snarled and danced out of the way of the charge. It looked for a moment like Mori would lumber over the boundary line, but he slowed and turned almost too fast to be believed to rumble and charge again. Tategami could only dodge again, and the pattern continued.

As the game of charge and evade continued, Eri asked what many in their class were thinking. "Why doesn't she use her roar?"

"Because she can't brace herself," Katsuma said, his eyes peeled. "Look, she's trying." When they all looked closer, it became clear that Katsuma was right. Tategami was attempting to brace herself, but Mori's turning to continue his controlled charges was keeping her from doing so before she could properly settle and dig her claws into the concrete.

"If she roars like that without bracing," Satsuki thought aloud, "then the force will push her out of the ring before it pushes the much more massive Mori."

Eri gave a tense giggle at her best friend's unintended alliteration before sobering up and focusing on the continued game of cat and elephant. "So what could she do to win?"

"It may boil down to who gets tired first," Kota commented, arms crossed. "If so, I'm pretty sure Tategami is screwed. There's a reason lions hunt in prides to take down bigger prey."

"There's also if Tategami watches documentaries," Satsuki said pensively, her knuckles to her lips in thought. She blinked at the feeling of being watched and looked about her to find that her friends were all staring at her in blank confusion. "What?"

"How the hell are nature docs gonna help?" Kota asked, genuine curiosity backing his irritated confusion. He knew and respected Satsuki well enough to know she had to have a reason for such a statement, no matter how nonsensical it came off as.

"The only thing that poses a threat to elephants in the wild is tigers," Satsuki explained. As it turned out, certain Quirks had facilitated the preservation of critically endangered species, such as tigers, pandas, elephants, and so on, but that was beside the point. "Usually tigers will attack the calves, the babies. But on rare occasions, they might team up and hunt an adult elephant. If Tategami knows how, she might be able to pull this off."

As if on cue, the chasing game within the arena changed. With a snarl, Tategami's latest evasion shifted into her extending her long claws and latching onto Mori's side, drawing a pained trumpeting from him. He rose up on his back legs, and Tategami climbed along him to get to his back, hanging on like an American cowboy on a bull.

"What is she doing?" Eri asked.

"Riding it out?" Kota suggested. "Trying to have Mori wear himself down?"

But the question was answered when Mori reared up on his hindlegs to try and get Tategami off, only to stumble and fall backward. Tategami seemed to be waiting for this and leapt off to touch down as lightly as she could, though still landing roughly with a pained snarl. As Mori groaned in his elephant way and tried to struggle to his feet, Tategami took the opportunity. She braced her stance and dug in her claws, her chest expanding with a deep breath, and she roared with such force that the wind pressure rolled Mori before rushing in a wave to buffet the audience. With his sheer mass, it wasn't much, but it was enough to have one of his limbs cross the boundary line.

"Mori is out of bounds," Lady Nagant declared. "Tategami will continue up the bracket."


Akame released her hold on the lion-like form, clouds swirling about her like a comforting blanket before fading away to reveal her true shape. She heaved air into her lungs, the exertion of her roar made worse by the constant movement of avoiding Mori's charges. She settled herself and then rose to approach, finding Mori transforming too, and gingerly rising to his own feet.

"Congratulations, Tategami," he said, and Akame heard no bitterness in the words. "That was quite clever."

"Did you know I could roar like that?" she asked.

"No," he huffed in the tiniest chuckle. "I just knew letting a lioness get her feet under her would be a bad idea."

"Well, it was still a smart strategy," Akame admitted with a small smile of her own, offering a closed fist. "One animal to another, I think you've got the makings of a hero."

"Much appreciated," he said, bumping his knuckles to hers. "Your class is lucky to have you. I can only hope I'll be as good a vice-representative."

"You'll do fine, I think," she said with a nod before turning to exit the arena.

"Best of luck," Mori said as he did the same. Then his smile faded into a look of concern as he glanced about the stands for a certain classmate of his. "Trust me," he whispered, "you'll need it the further you go."


"Alright, sports fans! Here we have the second batch of finalists!" announced Present Mic.

"Aw yeah, Mic! First up from Class A, we've got the lovely lady with her own set of scale armor on command. Ms. Kushina Wani!"

"And facing her down is the mechanical man of mystery with a kung-fu grip! Also from Class A, Mr. Kinzoku Hito!"

"Contestants ready?" Lady Nagant called, and both nodded. "Ready … fight!"

With the crack of the gunshot, Wani grit her teeth as her scales grew and hardened into their armored state along her forearms and hands before she raced forward with a shout of defiance.

As she did, Kinzoku felt the sensation of lumps moving under his skin that always accompanied his mechanizing any part of his body, the feeling spreading from within his chest before splitting and spreading to gather on the right side of his face and along his left arm. His arm turned gunmetal grey as the effect completed, as did the side of his face, while his eye glowed red.

More than once growing up, when other kids had seen his face like this, he'd been compared to that old robot movie. If he heard the quote, "Come with me if you want to live" — or even worse, "I'll be back" — one more time, it would be too soon.

But the red, glowing eye was about more than appearance. It enhanced his vision, tracking through the heat and UV spectrums and providing a zoom function … while also tracing Wani's movements to predict her trajectory. In less than a second, he reared back with his mechanical arm and punch to meet her predicted right hook, the force of his robotic arm meeting and matching her armored one.

Kinzoku Hito.

Quirk: Roboticize. He can turn any two parts of his body — any of his limbs, upper or lower torso, or each side of his face — into robot-like forms. His limbs gain enhanced strength, speed, and toughness, while his eyes have enhanced types of vision and calculation abilities.

The forces canceled each other out and sent both of them reeling backward. Wani yelped and shook out her fist, some of her scales broken and crumbling before she hardened them again. Kinzoku blanched at the force upon his shoulder, rolling the mechanical limb to regain sensation with the curious sound of whirring hydraulics.

"That all you got?" he asked.

"Hardly," Wani replied, then charged with a heavy kick backed by her armored scales. Kinzoku deflected the elbow on reflex, but the force still sent him spinning into the air. He grit his teeth as he directed his robotics from his face and down to his right leg, just in time for it to brace his fall without injury. He landed on that leg and slid backward to just in front of the boundary — Wow, that was close! — and bound away off that leg as Wani followed up with bound and a screaming downercut.

Kinzoku grunted and shifted his robotics back to the side of his face, tracking Wani's movements with his mechanized eye. The next few minutes were a blur of dodging her strikes or deflecting them with his robotic arm, sparks flying from the metal and leaving light scratches even as they chipped at her armored scales. But Wani was unrelenting, her eyes bright and focused over her tiny nose and a small, firm smile.

It was only when his eye calculated at double punch that Kinzoku shifted the robotics from there to his other arm to catch both impacts … and there he realized that he'd made a terrible mistake. His robotic arms caught her blows and held fast, but flesh-and-bone legs were not near so strong. He slid to his knees, straining with everything he had.

"You got some cool tricks, Hito," Wani said, her voice also straining even as those oblique, yellow eyes stared into his own. "But this round is mine. Give up and there'll be no hard feelings."

"Nah," Kinzaku said, a brief grunt as sweat rolled down his face. "You'll have to beat me fair and square."

"Fine," Wani sighed. Then she eased up and the lack of force sent Kinzaku rushing forward, face first, right into an armored headbutt from Wani that sent him surging backward and to the ground, out cold.

"Hito has been knocked out and can no longer fight," Lady Nagant announced. "Kushina Wani is the winner!"


"Okay, here we go," Satsuki said, her high, raspy voice full of anticipation. A glance to her side found both Eri and Katsuma cheering, Eri actually out of her seat. Down in the ring, Kota stood before Toreka as the fires in the arena corners flared in preparation.

"Here we go, sports fans!" Kaminari shouted, borrowing Present Mic's catchphrase. "We've got a great pairing this round, putting up one of Class A's recommended students, Kota Izumi!"

"And he's up against a crazy king of the sky," Mic picked up. "Also from Class A, Hane Toreka!"

At those words, Kota was grinning as frighteningly as anything Dynamight could have done. On the other end of the ring, Toreka was very clearly uneasy. He'd shed his uniform jacket and shirt in preparation for producing wings, but was shifting in place as if preparing to flee.

"How 'bout we just have a fun match?" Toreka asked tentatively. Kota's grin didn't waver as he very slowly shook his head, eager to start. Toreka's nervous smile withered and he audibly gulped.

"Contestants ready?" Lady Nagant called, and both boys nodded. "Fight!"

Kota opened the fight by blasting a torrent of water from his palms at Toreka, like a wide fire hose. Toreka had wasted no time growing several pairs of wings from his ankles, wrists, the sides of his shoulders, and his ribs — why didn't he ever manifest from his back like a classic angel? — and flying above his line of fire, hovering in the air for a split second before yelping as Kota raised his hands to keep up his torrent into the air.

As Toreka flew around like a hummingbird, so many pairs of wings acting functionally for hovering, something happened with the arena boundaries. Holographic white lines emerged and rose in perfect line with the boundary.

"Those are still your boundary lines," Lady Nagant announced. "Cross them, fliers, and you're out."

"Ah, great," Toreka snarked, yelping as he maneuvered around a blast of Water Gun.

"Looks like a classic fragile speedster versus a long-range glass cannon," Katsuma said aloud. "It boils down to if Kota can land a hit on Toreka or Toreka can evade and outlast Kota's firepower."

"When did you start talking in those terms?" Satsuki asked. "I've literally never heard you use that kind of jargon."

"I actually think in them a lot," Katsuma admitted with a blush.

Down in the arena, Kota was starting to think along the line Katsuma had lined out in the stands. He blasted at Toreka, who hovered aside by the narrowest of margins. Even sweeping the line of fire, or in Kota's case water, wasn't working as Toreka's admittedly impressive reflexes and balance helped him avoid it.

'There's no way he can keep this up for long,' Kota reasoned, blasting more gouts of water to keep Toreka moving. 'Hummingbirds have crazy metabolisms to keep up their hovering. There's no way Toreka can support this kind of activity.'

That being said, Kota was getting bored and impatient, two emotions that never led to good things in teenagers. He grit his teeth as he came to a decision and fired Water Gun toward the ground, sending himself hurtling upward toward his opponent with a shout of challenge. Toreka shouted too, in almost comedic fear as he lurched to the side out of the way.

"Come on, wuss!" Kota snarled. "Show some backbone!" He blasted his water spouts to flip him backward and around, letting gravity take hold for a flying downward kick that Toreka dodged again … and he wobbled in midair. 'Yes!' Kota shouted in his head.

As Kota chased Toreka down through the air, both of them careful not to cross the boundary lines, he started to grit his teeth against the pain growing in his wrists from the strain of his Quirk. 'Come on, dammit! Come on!'

Finally, another wobble as Toreka's wings faltered and Kota closed the gap to crash into Toreka and send them both falling toward the ground. "Crap!" Kota snarled as he positioned himself below Toreka and triggered his Quirk to slow their fall, hitting the ground hard but without injury … and Toreka landing on him to crush the air from his lungs. He grunted and surged to his feet, rolling Toreka's exhausted form off of him.

"Call it," Kota said, taking off his cap and brushing a hand back through his hair. "He's done."

"Toreka can no longer fight," Lady Nagant agreed with a Rifle shot. "Winner: Kota Izumi!"

Kota looked down at Toreka heaving for breath, all eight of the twitching wings he had manifested receding back into various surfaces of his body, and sighed before taking him by the shoulder and hauling him up to his feet. "Come on, show some pride in yourself," Kota sneered, and waved to the crowd as they awaited the medic bots that would escort them both to Recovery Girl.


"Come on, Katsuma!" Eri shouted. "You got this!"

"I'm surprised you're not down at the infirmary visiting Kota, kero," Satsuki commented, having to pitch her voice loud over the cheers of the crowd behind them.

"He didn't get hurt that badly," Eri replied, eyes still focused on the arena below. "Recovery Girl will have him fixed right up and he'll be here to watch with us."

As if on cue, Kota wandered up, massaging his wrists and plopping down next to them to watch Katsuma's match. "Has Shimano started yet?"

"Just about to," Satsuki said.

"Here we are, watchers and listeners!" Present Mic announced. "We've had three great rounds so far, and the next sends up a kid with a kind heart and healing hands. From Class A, Katsuma Shimano!"

"And his opponent from Class B," Kaminari announced, "a guy with a real spring in his step today and every day. Give it up for Kimishu Sumisu!"

The cheers washed down into the area and Katsuma had to physically swallow down his nerves. He looked up to the audience and put on a nervous, toothy smile — imagining what Mr. Deku or All Might would do — and even lifted a hand hoping the cameras would focus on him for just a moment for his dad and sister.

"No hard feelings, man," Sumisu said amiably. He was a heavy guy, kind of like Mori from his class, with a similar round face if framed by shaggy yellow hair, but whose frame was much more clearly muscle than fat with broad shoulders and thick limbs. Limbs that, with the sleeves of his gym uniform rolled up, were clearly flesh-colored coils.

Kimishu Sumisu.

Quirk: Spring Limbs. His arms mimic strong industrial springs that he can stretch out at will with great force while his hands keep full functionality. Other parts of his body may be springy, too.

"But I'm gonna make my class proud," he continued. "And let's face it, you don't stand much of a chance."

"I don't?" Katsuma asked rhetorically, his stomach both sinking and filling with something hot and unpleasant as he had a feeling what was coming next.

"What even is your Quirk, man?" Sumisu asked, flicking his head to clear the long yellow strands from his eyes. "Some kinda low-level enhancement Quirk? Mic just said something about healing hands?" He scoffed, but also winced. "Sorry, dude. You're no fighter, are ya?" He shook out his arms, the coiled springs loosening a bit. "For what it's worth, I do hope you get scouted."

"Contestants ready?" Lady Nagant asked, and both nodded. "Go!"

With a deep, long boing sound, Sumisu sent his left fist surging forward on his springy limb, packing enough force to send Katsuma clear out of the ring. Katsuma's expression was blank as it came at him … and he took a smooth step and pivoted out of the path of its flight, the air displaced barely rustling his clothes.

Sumisu grunted as his arm spring recoiled into place and he looked at Katsuma with surprise. "Huh," he said pensively. "Lucky." But by his tone, he didn't really believe that. He sent his other fist rocketing forward … and Katsuma, expression still smooth and blank, spun out of its path in two steps, much like before.

"Who said I couldn't fight?" Katsuma asked. And then he ran towards Sumisu with fire in his eyes. Sumisu began punching with his alternating fists, but Katsuma ducked under or leapt over each spring-laden punch without slowing down. Too soon to seem possible, he was within close range and sent a straight punch at Sumisu's head that the stocky boy was too slow to evade. It connected with a meaty thump and a pained shout from its target.

Sumisu shook it off and refocused … but Katsuma was gone. He looked around, jerking this way and that, but he never reappeared. It was only when his eyes flicked to the screens around the stadium that he realized where Katsuma was: behind him, with his hand level at Sumisu's spine. He kept juking from side to side, his gaze darting from screen to screen to see Katsuma keeping behind him, legs crossing like scissors as he anticipated Sumisu's motions.

"Alright, you're good," he admitted with a nod of approval. Then he tensed as if ready to jump … and his torso stretched in a coil of its own, dragging his waist and legs up into a high jump. Sumisu twisted in midair and reared back to send both arms surging forward in a springy double hammer-punch.

But Katsuma took two steps in a circle and evaded the punches, letting them bite into the ground and Sumisu to ride their stored force back to the surface to try and kick Katsuma, but he was still just out of range. The force of the landing rattled Sumisu's bones, stunning him a bit and leaving him open to a twisting kick from Katsuma to the side of his head.

Sumisu shook off the dizziness from that hit, blinking his eyes back into focus, and looked at Katsuma Shimano who seemed none the worse for wear. He started to get angry, not at Shimano but at himself. Did he seriously expect anyone accepted into UA's hero course to be a pushover? It was time to get serious.

"Alright, let's go for real," he said. He grit his teeth as he flexed his springs, storing energy in them that left his arms trembling. This wasn't something he'd had much chance to practice, but it would make his distance punches faster and hit harder. He lifted an arm, and with the force of a cannon he fired off his punch … that Shimano was already dodging out of the way of. He began to store up force for his next punch that would definitely end it-

Bang!

"Sumizu is out of bounds!" Lady Nagant declared after her blank gunshot. "Winner: Katsuma Shimano!"

Sumizu was so surprised that he didn't brace for the recoil, and the return of his own fist sent him sprawling to the ground with a grunt of pain.

"Hey, are you alright?" Sumisu blinked and tilted his head up to find his opponent holding out a hand, eyes burning now with concern more than determination.

"Am I alright?" he asked dumbly before his thoughts caught up, clapping his hand into Shimano's to be hauled to his feet. "Yeah, I'm good." He sighed and placed his hands on his hips. "Just sore that I lost, you know?"

"You did great," Katsuma said. "Though maybe try for sweeping moves and not just straight punches," he added with a bright smile. "You'd have some serious area attacks if you did that."

"Hey, that's smart," Sumisu commented with a small smile. He clapped Shimano on the shoulder and began to make his way to the stands, but not before adding, "Good luck going forward."

"Thanks," Shimano said with a wide smile.


"That was amazing, Katsuma!" Eri squealed, dragging him down to sit next to her.

"I never realized you had skills like those," Satsuki commented. Sure, they'd begun some basic hand-to-hand training that Aizawa had promised would get more intense, but Katsuma had never shown that level of mastery in class. He could probably give Eri a run for her money in Quirkless combat.

"Nice work," Kota said, his tone grudging.

"Thanks," Katsuma said happily and glanced at the bracket on the screens around the arena.

Present Mic and Chargebolt got on the commentary again and announced the match-up of Class A's Saru Teashi against Class B's Musha Tamashiro. Their skinny, bespectacled classmate looked resolved while his opponent — a tall and well-built guy with large brown eyes, dirty-blond hair swept backward from his face into spikes, and a mouth full of pointed teeth — just smiled with confidence.

The boys traded a few words that none of the audience could make out, but they left Tamashiro grinning wider and Teashi blanching, adjusting his glasses with nerves.

"That guy kinda reminds me of Kota," Satsuki said without preamble.

"What?" Kota replied, apparently offended by the comparison. "He's nothing like me!"

"Contestants ready?" Lady Nagant asked. "Fight!"

Upon that word, Teashi raced for Tamashiro, apparently having taken a page from Katsuma's book, while also stretching his arm for a punch from a distance like Sumisu. Running would have also added to the momentum of the offensive. But there wasn't enough time to stop Tamashiro from producing a half-dozen fist-sized black spheres from the skin of his hands that immediately grew to a size three feet in diameter, opening wide, shark-like mouths of needle teeth.

One of the balls darted into the path of Teashi's elongated punch, blocking it with a loud, metallic clang. Teashi shouted in pain, but didn't stop running as he withdrew his arm. With a twist of his hips, he swung his other arm around in an arc, elongating it as it swung to build up even more force from the leverage. Tamashiro moved another black ball into the path of his swipe, but the force of Teashi's swing knocked it aside several feet. Tamashiro lifted his eyebrows, apparently impressed by that.

So distracted, he didn't notice Teashi jump and elongate his leg in a kick straight for him. Tamashiro noticed at the last possible second, too late to dodge or to block, and the kick connected to his abdomen to kick him back a few feet and knock the air from his lungs.

"Yes!" Teashi shouted — then was blasted backward as something moving too fast to see struck him in the chest, sending him crashing against the ground and sprawling. One of the black balls bounced and rolled away from him. Tamashiro straightened and patted his belly where that kick hand landed before walking with a determined gait toward Teashi.

Teashi, on the other hand, was finding it difficult to uncurl from the ball he'd rolled into from the pain. Or to breathe, for that matter. With an effort of will, he pried himself open and rolled onto his hands and knees to try to stand up, but fell back to his elbows and coughing up a few drops of blood.

"Sorry about that," Tamashiro said. "Reflex." He gestured at the dozen or so spheres floating around him. "My binging balls are kinda in a grey area between alive or not, but they're definitely not intelligent. They react to my thoughts and will, and when you landed a hit I reacted. And so that one did, too."

He stopped a few feet from Teashi, his grin replaced by a grimace of regret. He sighed and swept his hand back through his hair. "I'm really sorry. Teashi, right? I admire your guts, but you didn't really have a chance." He crossed his arms. "With any luck, a few heroes that I met a long time ago are watching. And I want to show them how much I've grown and matured.

"You might know them. Shoto, Dynamight, Gale Force, and Illus-O-Camie." He looked up to the audience, gaze pensive. "I really hope you're watching, Five Weenies, Bakugo," he whispered. Then he refocused and gestured to one of his binging balls that opened its maw wide and darted to take a bite out of the concrete next to Teashi's head, chomping gouges into the artificial stone like soft ice cream.

"You didn't do half bad," Tamashiro said. "So do the smart thing and withdraw."

Teashi glared at Tamashiro, and the boy from Class B actually smiled again, showing those pointed teeth. "I … withdraw," Teashi grunted.

"Teashi has withdrawn," Lady Nagant announced. "Tamashiro is the winner."

"Seriously, you did good," Tamashiro said. "I can respect that kind of fire in your heart."

Musha Tamashiro.

Quirk: Binging Ball. He can release those floating black spheres with mouths from his body and grow them to great sizes. They can move at high speeds as projectiles, ingest tough materials, and act as shields or as platforms to float around on.

Tamashiro released a pent-up breath and crossed his arms, waiting for the medic bots to come get Teashi.


"Wow, that guy's really strong," Satsuki commented.

"Eh, I can take him," Kota said. "But I gotta admit, I like his style."

"These matches are getting pretty fierce," Eri said, rising from her seat. "Speaking of, I'm up next."

They all looked up at the bracket and saw that Eri was indeed up next. Satsuki, Kota, and Katsuma all glanced at each other and then turned to look at Eri's back as she made her way to the waiting room. They were all confident in her abilities.

"Time to see Eri kick ass," Kota smirked.

Chapter thirteen is finally here! It took some serious effort to get past writer's block, but I was determined to make it happen for my loyal readers!

*I had hoped to squeeze all eight of the first round into this chapter, but it wasn't meant to be. For those of you thinking that many of them were brief, bear in mind that several of the canon matches in the Sports Festival Arc were rather short, too, such as Shiozaki's matches with Kaminari and Ida, Tokoyami's matches with Momo and Ashido, and so on.

*Yes, Mori's Quirk enhancing his memory is a reference to the old adage, "An elephant never forgets." I just couldn't help myself.

*Satsuki's little bit of alliteration was indeed unintended. But when it came out, I just had to comment on it. I love it when stuff like that happens in the writing process!

*As it turns out from my original plan, Hito was supposed to win. But something didn't seem right with that and I asked my brother who should win. Knowing next to nothing about the characters, he said "scale mail" and so I ran with it.

*Sumisu's given name, Kishimu, is the Japanese for "creak," as in the sound a spring makes.

*Katsuma's keeping behind his opponent with a hand level with his spine is inspired by airbending in "Avatar: TLA" which was inspired by the martial art of ba gua, or "circle walking." I just think it's a good fit for Katsuma's gentle nature and one of several piecemeal styles he was taught by his mentor.

*Tamashiro's speech about meeting these four heroes is a direct reference to the Remedial Training Arc, as he was one of those kids. His comment about hoping "Five Weenies" is watching is both a reference to that and that Tamashiro in canon watched Shoto fight Dabi at the end and was rooting for him.

*I tried pretty hard to maintain Tamashiro's pride in himself and the Bakugo-like love of fighting that I picked up from his kid self, while also showing that he has indeed grown as a person into someone who can be a good hero.

As always, I hope it was a fun read! Leave a review if you can! And may your own inspiration flow freely!